>I like and respect you, bear in mind. It's just that questioning a parent's commitment, even untentionally, is over the line. My marriage broke up but neither of us ever stopped being parents, plural. My younger daughter graduates from high school two weeks from tomorrow, third in her class. (And the only well adjusted one in the three). I will be there in the bleachers with her mom and her sister. Her test scores have always been off the charts. I do not claim too much credit for that. The one thing I claim credit for is she has grown up every day of her life knowing she is loved.
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>If you are not still following the basketball career of Chicago's gift to Memphis, Derrick Rose, he was presented the MVP trophy before Wednesday night's game, the youngest in league history.
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>Hmmm, this hits both topics at once. He was raised by a single parent. And it shows what a parent can do.
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Yeah, there ARE exceptions to anything and everything. Derrick Rose also had some older brothers looking out for him as I recall. I'm glad he has done so well. I think I've stated my case regarding the norm though. Most of the thousands of the homes I've visited while attempting to arrest people were occupied by a grandmother, a mother and several kids. It is a formula for disaster, in most cases.


>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/bulls/2011-05-05-drosemvp_N.htm
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>>I have an excellent vocabulary, but not because I decided to study. My dad assigned me 50 vocabulary words every week starting when I was in the 4th grade and through the 6th grade. I had to spell them, say them and use them in a sentence. Later, in high school, I took an advanced grammar class to prepare me for college and also had vocabulary every week. I didn't like having to go through all that, but it was worth it. We also pushed our kids on their vocabulary and they do very well. I think the parents need to re-engage with their kids. The problem is, in today's world, it's parent, not parentS.
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>>>>I agree with you on the changing standards. when my daughter was in the 4th grade she attended a private school and at the end of the year she tested out at the 9th grade reading level. The next year she attended public school and after her first week, she came home and asked me why her classmates couldn't read very well....and sadly, some of those kids still cannot.
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>>>Yep it's disgusting. I have a friend that approached one of her daughters teachers expressing concern that she didn't feel her daughter (who's in 7th grade) was spelling and reading as well as she should. The teachers response was "oh we teach that in 8th and 9th grade, we don't worry about it now because all the kids have spell checkers."... Needless to say my friend was not happy with this response at all and has resorted to spending 45min to an hour each night teaching her on her own. The thing that really gets me is that the school district is one of the top 5 in the whole nation!